22 April 2008
Addis Abeba — The government of Norway donated 20 million in humanitarian assistance the help drought affected parts of the country.
The donation was made to Humanitarian Response Fund (HRF) in Ethiopia and as part of the joint government and humanitarian partners' response plan for the country for 2008, published on April 10, 2008, where priority of interventions were determined jointly with government authorities, the UN and NGOs.
"I am happy to announce this rapid response from the Norwegian Government and trust that the contribution will help alleviate the humanitarian situation for those affected by the lack of rain or rain below average during the short rains,"said Norwegian Ambassador Jens-Petter Kjemprud in the statement.
"We believe the HRF to be a flexible shift response to government defined needs," he added.
The HRF, managed by the UN Humanitarian coordinator with support from OCHA, was established in Ethiopia in 2006 with objectives of ensuring timely and appropriate delivery of gap-filling, live-saving assistance and as a means of strengthening the coordination role of the UN Humanitarian coordinator.
According to the Joint Government and Humanitarian Partners' plan for 2008, issued on 10 April, the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia is currently affected by failure of deyr/hageya rain in most pastoral areas of Somali Region and Borena Zone in Oromia Region, followed by poor-to-very poor belg/ganna rains resulted in extreme food insecurity in the south and south eastern pastoral and agro pastoral areas of the country.
According to the National Meteorology Agency (NMA) forecast, the performance of rain is anticipated to be low (below average) in some parts of the country until May2008. The law performance of the rains is forecasted to affect the belg crop producing areas of the country in the north-eastern highlands, central and southern parts of Tigray, Amhara, SNNP regions.
HRF humanitarian operation in Ethiopia is based on inter-agency and inter-donor cooperation, and has decision making structure in place to ensure broad participation from relevant stakeholders in the humanitarian field. Disbursements from HRF are based on proposals from a range of humanitarian partners in Ethiopia, within the government framework of the annual humanitarian appeals.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Daily Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
